Goodly morning all...

Sitting here in my rocking chair watching those college boys in their C17s, Hercs, Airbus, King Airs and Helicopters of several types all doing circuits along with several civilian airliners...I got to a wondering?


Yup time on my hands again...old girl is off with some nattering nannies shopping...I can't figure out what more we need, but, she has gone shopping.

How does that old saying go now:
A tree is a tree is a tree
or
A duck is a duck is a duck

Well I can't figure out why folks would want to be a commercial aviator and sit in one of those suck and blow spam cans, plod along at thirty thousand or so feet and be bored out of their minds after ten minutes.

One can hardly make out the contour of mother earth, so what is the desire or urge to want to do something like that?

Got me!

It can't be the money, it takes forever to make any with todays airlines.  Probably be a year from retirement before you reach the six figures, it is not like it used to be twenty or so years ago.
Now you have everything from union dues to upgraded training fees.

Give me a break, one can make more money stocking shelves in a grocery store with less stress....

Can't be the fancy uniform with those gold or silver stripes on them.

Heck just the other day we drove into a fairly large commercial airport which ran a very well recognised commercial flight school with more than eighty percent foreign students enrolled.
Guess Canucks have no money...

The flight instuctors there all strolled around wearing white shirts, matching ties, grey trousers and those beloved four stripes on their shoulders.
Most of them still had peach fuzz on their faces, either they had not been taught how to shave or their cat died...

It was all the old girl could do to get me to stop laughing...

Heck that can't be the reason, you can buy one of those white shirts and put on the four stripes and still stock grocery shelves...probably make more money also...

Now maybe it is you want to be a bush pilot, hmmm?

AH....the life of a cavalier, devil may care, kick ass bush driver...

Well that may be okay in thought, but, in reality they are few and far between when it comes getting there from scratch.
Insurance requirments almost kill the low time applicant and the cost of obtaining that many hours to meet insurance requirements, well lets say, you will be paying for that endorsement a very very long time if you did get hired.

So lets say you make it to the outer circle of bush flying.

AW yes...there you are, blue jeans, "T" shirt, running shoes dashing along in your thrifty Cessna.  OOH

Looking down from your lofty perch of less than a hundred feet you have a birds eye view of:
-foxes chasing rabbits
-the odd bear, moose or deer looking up at you
-birds like ducks taking off from a beaver pond...because you scared the hell out of them...dummy

And then it happens...

Remember that saying:
A tree is a tree is a tree

Well you just ran into a bunch of high old pines.

Now picking the pine needles out of your butt is painful and it will be very dificult to sit down while writing out an accident report to explain why your bird is sitting in a tree all the while your Chief Pilot and probably owner of the company is chewing your butt off...

So where does a young or old wannabe aviator start, well try being a cook or stock grocery store shelves, that can be a lot more fun and you can still wear that shirt with the four bars, besides, you will see a lot more walking.....

Hey I got to go and finish my Honey To Do List before the old girl gets home...
What did you expect, a well written novel like Gone with the Wind?????

Flying Trucker wrote on Apr 21^st, 2011 at 11:37am:

Can't say I'm familiar with that saying Doug but I think you've summed up the situation pretty well.

Funny you should mention it, I've known two airline pilots who stocked shelves between flying jobs. Apparently airline pilots get laid off a lot. I can't say much though, I stock shelves for 7up part time in addition to my "real" job.

Flying Trucker wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2011 at 10:02am:


Three hots and a cot, plus access to a computer and family visits...can't really see a downside Doug! 

I remember something about, when you're up to your arse in alligators, it's difficult to remember that your initial plan was to drain the swamp.

Great stuff Doug
I'm going to find some stripes to wear on my t-shirt today........ while I sit in front of the computer......and maybe try to grow a little peach fuzz

Flying Trucker wrote on Apr 23^rd, 2011 at 3:08pm:


......Peachfuzz....check...."pyjama" stripes....check......we're ready for take off Captain